Let’s Be Hot: Recent Episodes
Dawnell Reese
The Let’s Be Hot podcast invites you to pursue a life of HOT faith! Each month, host Dawnell Reese, will interview people who have rejected mediocre, average, lukewarm living. Instead they live empowered by relying on the same spirit that walked Jesus out of his own grave. This powerful uprising will heat up everything – our relationships, our community and our future. Join us on the journey and investigate what HOT faith looks like in today’s world.
Dawnell’s husband and successful artist, Brandon Reese, opens up about how his faith was once a compartmentalized and struggling area of his life. The more he tried to address his questions as obstacles he had to overcome, the less creative he became until he reached a crisis point. On the brink of losing it all, he chose to leverage his questions as opportunities to integrate his faith into every aspect of his life. His creativity flourished - as well as his marriage and personal life. Listen to his authentic process of becoming abundant in his mindset and intentional with his impact.
The last episode uncovered the beautiful and difficult journey of our daughter Rachel becoming adopted into the Reese family. This week, my friend Cindy Schaefer takes the reins, digging deep into my story and unearthing even deeper layers of our family's narrative - of love, courage, and obedience in the middle of hard circumstances. Pursuing a life of HOT faith means living outside your comfort zone and learning to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. Sometimes, the transformations and influence may seem insignificant, yet seemingly minor "yeses" can catalyze profound, life-changing shifts—much like they did for our family!
Whatever circumstances you’re facing - or have faced in your past - you have a choice. You can choose to look at God through the lens of those circumstances or you can look at your circumstances through God and the story that he wants to write with your life. Dawnell's daughter, Rachel, joins her in this episode. She became an official part of the Reese family when she was 12 years old. She shares her journey of healing emotionally and physiologically from the dysfunction and instability of her childhood by embracing and choosing the story God wants to write with her life. Listen as she discusses how by leaning into God's truth and love for her she discovered a new life and identity in him!
Watch now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aF1V5iie8rg
Meet Brayde Bursiaga who shares her pursuit of a life filled with community and authenticity. God shaped her story through resilience and as she leaned deep into faith to find freedom from shame. Brayde shares her deeply personal experiences of teenage pregnancy, marital crisis, fostering journey, and career in ministry. Her life began to transform when she recognized that she was battling extreme burnout. She decided to get transparent with her community and to seek counseling. Join your host, Dawnell Reese and her guest, Brayde, as they unpack the profound lessons learned from facing life's complexities head-on.
What if we could approach everything that we disagree with or don't understand with curiosity and kindness instead of defensiveness and shame? How would that affect our body, our mind, our relationships and our community? In this episode, I talk with Story Coach, Emily Baker, who specializes in narrative-focused trauma care.
In this episode of 'Let's be Hot,' we dissect the biblical nuances of guilt, shame, and condemnation, and how they can easily lead to imposter syndrome. A strong identity in Christ can guide us from guilt to grace, especially when we embrace confidence in his inseparable, inexplicable and exceptional love for us.Dawnell and Cindy highlight Romans 8 which challenges those in Christ Jesus to reject the shackles of condemnation as we walk in step with his plans for our lives and His Spirit who helps us. Their discussion tackles the modern phenomenon of imposter syndrome—an "us" centered problem. This episode encourages a Christ centered shift. From there we see how repentance, forgiveness, and faith can transform guilt into growth and turn the shadows of imposter syndrome into opportunities for authenticity. God's Spirit empowers a confident identity based on His fierce love for us.
Today’s content deals with the topic of sex. If you are a minor, we encourage you to listen, but do so with a mature adult.In this episode, faith meets fire in a conversation surrounding the sensitive yet crucial topic of pornography and sexual sin – an issue many men (and women) wrestle with that is taking an emotional, spiritual and relational toll on families and communities. My guest is my good friend, Mike Decker, and we dive into some of the most raw and broken places in his past to tell the story of how Jesus has radically transformed his life, freeing him from the bondage of sexual sin and setting him on a path of significance and purpose. Mike shares that through this journey, he’s learned the gospel is not some boring or archaic set of traditions, but rather a relationship that is alive and active and full of risk and adventure and excitement. We explore how life with Jesus brings joy instead of shame and leads to real and lasting freedom for broken, hurting people trapped in their pain and past.If today’s conversation impacts you and leaves you wanting more resources or help, please explore the links in the episode notes that we’ve provided.True North180 recoverWild at Heart Celebrate RecoveryI Declare War
Season 2 is finally here! Join us as we dive into the name of our podcast “Let’s be Hot”. How can we help our world heal, recover and become stronger than ever - even when life keeps hitting us hard from every angle? We dig deep into the potential of what can happen when we take radical action and love people - even in the midst of polarization, division and a cancel culture.
Counseling is finally becoming something more mainstream as our culture begins to understand and embrace it’s benefits and advantages.Gina Burrell is a marriage and family counselor. Her story empowered her to do for others what she had so desperately needed in her greatest loss and trauma. Gina introduces the “The Counselor” - a crucial aspect of how God loves and empowers us to live in health as a whole person - emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. She vulnerably shares how she dealt with the impact of situations that could have potentially derailed her from her purpose and her present family.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Have you ever been face to face with what you fear most? What do you do when the thing you've been running from most of your life catches up with you? Join me today as Renee Rhodes shares how exhilarating it is to be free from fear - even in the face of death. Weeks after taking her last Chemo treatment and months after an extremely extensive surgery to remove ovarian cancer, she shares how God uses everything, even something as “sucky” as cancer, for our good and the good of those we love. Hear how her courage and faith have given her the ability to live life more intentionally and purposefully than ever before - and how even though she no longer fears death, she has declared war - for her life and God’s plans for her family.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Few people are willing to expose their vulnerabilities - but that is exactly what my friend, Gretchen Clarkson does in our conversation about struggling against having “fluffy faith”. Hard times and desperation can force hot faith but what do you do in the mundane - when the very bravest thing you can do is stay? Gretchen proposes that when the relationship is valuable, you put in the work. Faith is an action - a series of decisions that move you forward. She suggests loving others, serving others and sharing faith are actually keys to inspiring foundational, growing faith.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Angie Ward’s career as a female pastor is not something she would have ever guessed for her life. She had a rocky relationship with the church - at best - and now serves it passionately. She is driven to help people see the beauty and necessity of the process of developing in our faith walk. She shares about the tensions that kept her searching for more. She continues to wrestle through the weight of accepting she is enough and she is lovable because Jesus is enough - and his love is enough - even for her.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
It’s time for me to get a bit vulnerable and dive into some of my personal life. Today, I am sitting down with my person, the love of my life, Brandon Reese. We peel back the years and the undercurrent of over 34 years together. We share the struggles and the secrets we’ve discovered in our story. It’s not a perfect story, but we serve a perfect God who takes our mess and uses it to unearth potential we never knew we had.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
What do we do when God promised us something specifically – and our reality doesn’t line up to that promise? What do we do when our prayers have been reduced to one word – “Why”? Amy Hagerman shares her journey through both of these questions when doctors announced 8 months into her pregnancy that her perfect baby boy she’d been waiting years to meet would face a life dealing with multiple health challenges. Amy continues to thrive and grow as a mom, wife, fellow believer and career woman. Hear how her own mom set her up to exhibit “regal” faith that became even more powerful in the wake of her son’s weighty medical diagnoses. Her positivity and strength influence her family and community daily!
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
What kind of labels do you wear? Not on your clothes or shoes - but in your heart and mind… Jami Decker sits down with Dawnell and discusses common insecurities we face and how we may be living through filters and perceptions that are cutting our potential short. She also provides helpful imagery that can guide us through our progression of fatih. There is freedom in hearing who God sees us to be instead of how we have perceived ourselves through circumstances and others.
Jami is a successful business owner in the beauty industry, married 19 years, and mother of 2. She finds joy in serving others and spending time with her kids and grand-daughter. Her passion for fitness fuels her day!
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this episode, Dawnell and Ashley Clinesmith chat through the difference between being transactional or relational - whether it’s in business or personal relationships. Living relationally keeps us present when it matters most and helps reduce the anxiety of those around us. Hear Ashley’s story about how shifting gears into a slower pace of life changed everything for her family.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this episode Dawnell sits down with her best friend of almost 22 years, Cindy Schaefer. They discuss how our faith, our relationships and our strengths can be cultivated - even when life hits the hardest.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this episode, Dawnell interviews the community of HOT women she lives life with. They have been a part of her Courageous Love bible study for years, and together they challenge each other through life’s hard hits to rely on a greater power than the world offers. Today, meet Jami Decker, Amy Haggerman and Jonette Passmore. Hear how their pursuit of faith empowered them and had lasting impact on their families and communities.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this episode, Dawnell interviews the community of HOT women she lives life with. They have been a part of her Courageous Love bible study for years, and together they challenge each other through life’s hard hits to rely on a greater power than the world offers. Today, meet Gretchen Clarkson, Kristi Reese and Ashley Clinesmith. Hear how their pursuit of faith empowered them and had lasting impact on their families and communities.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app